In August my 2 year sentence with Directv is up. I am looking to cut my bill down drastically. I have a brand new Vizio smart tv.

My computer system is hard wired, not wifi, I know nothing of running video tv. I need to have all the sports channels obviously, can anyone give me some advice , pointers, tips or any info to help make a decision on what to do?

My cousin bought a streaming device to hook up to his TV. Gets him Netflix and all of the popular TV apps. He then downloaded XBMC, which is what I use to stream all of my movies, shows, sports, etc. Some of the newer TV's might be able to download it straight to it

Yeah, I seriously don't know of a way to get sports outside of what's broadcast over the air in your area without taking it in the keister from the cable/satellite companies.

Setting up Plex on your computer and using a $35 Chromecast will let you easily watch any and all video content on your computer wirelessly and for free aside from buying a Chromecast. Unless there's a Plex app for your smart TV in which case you can do it all completely free, but this is only for shows/movies you have saved to your computer.

Technology is still purposely kept back in the stone age in some ways, it's really unfortunate...

Between the netflixes, hulus, amazons and over the air stations, you can watch just about anything now EXCEPT sports. There is just too much money involved in keeping the sports away from streaming for me to imagine a change on that in the near future....at least live sports.

“You can please some of the people all of the time, you can please all of the people some of the time, but you can’t please all of the people all of the time”

kidhawk wrote:There is just too much money involved in keeping the sports away from streaming for me to imagine a change on that in the near future....at least live sports.

Yet, there is tremendous demand for sports to be available for streaming live online. I'd certainly pay for it.

Sigh...I'll believe sports leagues actually care about their fans when they start proving it with things that matter, like offering live streaming sports online. Freaking non-Americans can buy Sunday Ticket to watch live online, but we can't.

kidhawk wrote:There is just too much money involved in keeping the sports away from streaming for me to imagine a change on that in the near future....at least live sports.

Yet, there is tremendous demand for sports to be available for streaming live online. I'd certainly pay for it.

Sigh...I'll believe sports leagues actually care about their fans when they start proving it with things that matter, like offering live streaming sports online. Freaking non-Americans can buy Sunday Ticket to watch live online, but we can't.

Dollars are king in the sports world, and in America, exclusivity brings ratings which brings in money. The amount of money brought in overseas through tv rights is minuscule in comparison, so it doesn't hurt them to stream it outside the US and in actuality it likely adds to their revenue stream. You or I are only a pittance in revenue compared to what the big television networks can offer. These networks often are lucky to break even on the deals, but they piggy back their NFL ratings to help draw viewers to other programming. I don't see how we could ever expect to compete with that.

Since this is an NFL board, let's use the NFL for our example:

THe NFL averages about 17-20 million viewers at any given time on television.

The NFL makes about $6 billion per year in television revenue.

That means that if every person now watching for free wanted to pitch in to help make up that $6 billion per year in revenue they'd have to ALL pitch in about $300 each, assuming the higher figure of 20 million viewers.

Now, we all know that even with streaming there will still be tv revenue, but it won't continue to climb as it has, and in fact if streaming is allowed, tv revenues will fall dramatically. A huge part of the reason the contracts continue to skyrocket is exclusivity. Lose that and revenue will drop A LOT. I'd say at least in half.

Now consider the American public. You hear the outcry over having to pay for things that they get for free all the time. People have an attitude that if it once wasn't coming out of their pocket, it never should. With that in mind, there's no way you're going to get a majority of those people to pay for the ride. Some will obviously, but they aren't going to want to see prices going up year after year after year.

The NFL has stated their goal is to get to $25 billion in annual revenue. They won't get that out of the pockets of streamers, especially when there are always some illegal free streams coming from somewhere.

With all that said, I think what I would like to see is individual networks getting streaming rights for their broadcasts. They could allow in market areas to stream to customers at a low rate and if you want an out of market game, they could charge more. This would then allow them to continue to stream the advertising and draw in the "ratings" that they so desire, while giving the people what they want. It's a win/win.....of course as long as DirecTV continues to have the NFL package and they continue to pay a premium for that, it's unlikely the networks will be allowed to stream their own broadcasts anytime soon.

“You can please some of the people all of the time, you can please all of the people some of the time, but you can’t please all of the people all of the time”

Just take a look at the Dodgers. They got out of all of their free networks to start their own channel and for the first time ever, the games are not broadcast locally for all the fans to see.

That is UNLESS you are a subscriber the the amazingly shitty Time-Warner. We are boycotting them to protest.

I am not sure I am still willing to pony up with another service just to get sports channels. When I first signed up, my payments were $39 per month, now almost 2 years later with NO additions that same bill is $89 and that is the middle of the road package.

Also, wasn't last year the year in which Directv's exclusive contract was up?

Largent80 wrote:Also, wasn't last year the year in which Directv's exclusive contract was up?

Last I heard (about a month ago) they were in negotiations to extend the contract. Add in the fact that AT&T has a $48 billion offer to buy directv that is contingent on extending the contract with the NFL, it's quite likely it gets done

“You can please some of the people all of the time, you can please all of the people some of the time, but you can’t please all of the people all of the time”